Fresh from engadget, Intel’s ClassmatePC will be shipping to Vietnam soon for about $250 for schools and $340 for everybody else. It will run Hacao Linux, a Vietnamese localized version of Puppy Linux. The Hacao Classmate PC will be shipped:
“…the usual 900MHz Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, 1GB of Flash storage, and a 7-inch WVGA — plus built-in WiFi, but, as Linux Devices points out, none of the OLPC’s fancy mesh networking technology.”
I played with the ClassmatePC last July at the Hochiminh Computer Association’s conference. It was difficult to use as well and this is coming from a Linux guy. The guys who used Windows had a more difficult time using the ClassmatePC. It was also quite slow then so hopefully Hacao Linux can speed things up.
I cannot see the ClassmatePC being popular with students in Saigon and Hanoi, though, due to the popularity of the iPhone which many are saving up for. Out in the provinces could be a different story.
(Source: engadget.com)
Read article here -> http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/27/hacaos-classmate-pc-starts-shipping-in-vietnam/
The iPhone is not that big here really. My new Dell rocks!
The ClassmatePC and the OLPC is stupid, retarded products – one by a nerdarific pointed head who can’t run a business and the other a kneejerk reaction by a manufacturer trying to protect itself from AMD.
You are right that devices like an iPhone are much, much more capable of closing the digital divide. Hell, an Apple iTouch is a more reasonable device to connect the developing world. It’s what, $300 retail?
Thanks for the Argumentum Ad Hominems D, and google that term if you have. I’m sure you used a touchpad 100% of the time. Ops. OLPC is a rapidly maturing product. Check out the latest here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22389026/. The laptops are priced at $188 each. Peru is buying 275,000 units, and Uruguay is getting another 100,000! That can’t be all that bad.
Thanks for the advice on google, ’cause you know, there’s no way in hell I can understand what you wrote. What would life be without the big G?
Did you catch the latest WSJ piece on OLPC? Their own board members are fretting about not getting the #s promised by Negroponte, because a few hundred thousand units is not gonna keep the board member’s Taiwan production facilities humming.
OLPC getting sales in South America is not wholly surprising. A certain John Negroponte (related, natch – the brother actually) sorta, kinda helped out some of those governments in the not too distant past. What’s a few hundred thousand laptops between friends?
That’s my point…you tend to focus on the people…like Neogroponte or pointy headed persons, rather than the logical argument of whether it’s a good thing and something worth pursuing. No URL provided, so I can’t evaluate you input fully. XO just started production. XO is happening, especially when compared to the alternatives.
Okay. It’s ugly, expensive and runs Linux?
Vietnamese kids ain’t stupid.